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Orange City Library
11 January – 28 March 2007
Port Macquarie Library
4 April – 19 June 2007
Lady Denman Heritage Centre, Huskisson
27 June – 28 August 2007
Campbelltown Library
1 September – 31 October 2007
Powerhouse Discovery Centre,
2 November 2007 – 27 April 2008

A travelling exhibition developed by the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, in collaboration with Dungog Historical Society, Leeton Italian Heritage Group, Brewarrina Local Aboriginal Land Council, Brewarrina Historical Society, Hay Museums, Hay and Booligal Public Schools, Dubbo Museum Services and Lightning Ridge Historical Society, with support from the Migration Heritage Centre NSW.

Illustration by Diana Platt.

Works wonders is an exhibition about some of the weird, wonderful and commonplace ways in which people have dealt with sickness and injury at home.

‘In our family it was castor oil for the inside, kerosene for the outside.’

Based on family memories of rituals and remedies, Works wonders tells the stories behind everyday household products and cures – a ‘nice cup of tea’ when someone is feeling off-colour, Vicks VapoRub on the soles of the feet ‘to draw a cold down from the head’, flat lemonade and plain toast after a gastric attack, or bright red mercurochrome antiseptic to soothe a child with a scraped knee.

In days past, financial reasons or geographical isolation prevented many people from seeking a doctor’s help. Now, people visit doctors much more frequently than ever before, yet home is still the first place for treatment and tender loving care. An older generation swear by ‘castor oil for the inside and kerosene for the outside’, while families from many different cultural groups resort to camphor ointment rubbed on chests and feet, not only for coughs and colds but also as a general pick-me-up.

While nostalgia forms one part of the exhibition’s appeal, visitors will also be challenged to think about deeper issues. Are we less self-sufficient than people used to be? In losing some of our traditional family knowledge and care-giving, are we trotting off to the doctor more frequently than we need to? On the other hand, in the so-called ‘good old days’, did children become seriously ill and even die, because of family reluctance to visit the doctor? And what about complementary medicine – is the self-prescribed daily multivitamin pill ‘to keep me healthy’ the ritualistic modern day equivalent of yesteryear’s ‘castor oil once a week, whether I needed it or not’?

Works wonders: stories about home remedies explores family rituals, emergency preparation, home nursing, the 20th century mother-craft movement and the modern-day medicine cupboard, and features therapeutic gadgets, medicine chests, patent medicines and the ingredients of home recipes.

Through an entertaining touch-screen interactive, people can visit a 1930s pharmacy and ‘ask the chemist’ for help with their tinea, dandruff and indigestion, and two audio-visual presentations will explore the home remedies of families from around regional New South Wales.

My mother used to put anything horrible (such as senna leaves or an APC
powder, which I dreaded) into a spoonful
of jam. The jam made it taste worse.
Patricia Miles, Sydney, formerly
Newcastle.

I’m 85 so I know what I’m talking about.
We had castor oil once a week whether
we needed it or not. If you were good
you got half a lemon or half an orange afterwards. Madeleine Lenz, formerly Lightning Ridge.

Vicks was a cure-all. It was our
antiseptic, it was there to clear our
noses, it was there to loosen up our
chests. Some of the kids, when they
got really bad flu they were made to
eat it. Cheryl Crawford, Brewarrina.

'Mr Rawleigh’ came round in a truck and householders bought medicinal things
from him. They were in beautiful tins.
Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Sydney,
formerly Jennings/Wallangarra.

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